Marbridge Daily

China's Telcos Announce August 2018 Subscriber Totals

Marbridge Consulting, 9/20/18

China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for the month of August 2018, including a combined net addition of 9.74 mln mobile subscribers in China.

China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) reported a net addition of 3.01 mln new mobile subscribers in August, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile user base to 912.98 mln. Of the total, 689.76 mln subscribers used its LTE networks during the month. China Mobile added 6.43 mln new LTE subs in August. China Mobile added 3.73 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in August, increasing its total fixed-line broadband user base to 141.87 mln.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) reported a net addition of 2.69 mln mobile billing subscribers during the month of August, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile billing user base to 307.22 mln. Of the total, 210.85 mln were LTE subscribers, with a net addition of 4.08 mln LTE subs during the month. China Unicom lost 0.37 mln fixed-line telephone subscribers in August, dropping its total to 57.17 mln. The operator added 0.41 mln fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in August, increasing its total to 79.62 mln.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) saw a net increase of 4.04 mln mobile subscribers in August, raising its total to 290.94 mln, of which 227.13 mln were 4G terminal users, with a net increase of 4.47 mln 4G terminal users in August. China Telecom lost 0.39 mln fixed-line telephone subs in August, reducing its total to 118.76 mln. China Telecom gained 0.81 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) to reach 142.70 mln.

China Mobile's share of China's total mobile subscriber base as of the end of August 2018 decreased to 60.42%, compared to 60.61% at the end of July 2018. China Unicom's share increased to 20.33%, compared to 20.28% at the end of July 2018, and China Telecom's share grew to 19.25%, up from 19.11% at the end of July 2018.

Keywords: wireless China Telecom China Mobile China Unicom broadband telecom 4G mobile subscribers broadband subscribers LTE CHL 0728.HK 0762.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH CHA CHU fixed-line subscribers market share registered users